homescreen

Developer Chris Lacy, maker of one of the best-known Android launchers out there in Action Launcher, is steadily upping his reputation as a developer who listens to his app’s users and brings the features they want at the soonest possible time. This is the case again with the latest update to Action Launcher, which brings lots of user requests to the app.

We’ve featured several app launchers already and we’re always on the lookout for more. The latest is this UR Mood Launcher that helps Android users to organize their homescreen and allows faster searching for apps. This efficiently manages apps by sorting them into profiles called UR moods that display apps based on one’s location or activity. You can easily create several UR moods depending on your frequently used apps at a certain place or schedule.

Bento for most people means a box of delicious meals most common among the Japanese. No, we're not promoting any Japanese restaurant just this new intelligent app for Android coming soon on the Google Play Store. App is still being developed by Bento Labs but we've seen a preview of this app that can turn a smartphone's homescreen into a very smart space as it remembers your mobile behaviors and preferences.

As apps and smartphone features get more advanced but more complicated, not everyone appreciates the complexities that come with it. Some would like to have their phone display easily the things they actually need and to show them as big as they can. Phone launchers are a dime a dozen, but only very few can cater to needs like this. KoalaPhone sounds cute and fuzzy, but in fact it is big and loud, just the way some users prefer to have it.

Google Now Launcher (or Google Experience Launcher, if you prefer the older name) is seemingly becoming the new fad for homescreen launchers. After CyanogenMod's own spin on the launcher with its CM Home experiment, Klinker Apps, makers of EvolveSMS and Talon, are now making available a new launcher called Blur that expands Google's launcher to make room for third-party developers to join the party.

Nokia, yes the real Nokia or what's left of it, has just announced the first ever major update to the pre-beta version of its search-centric self-learning Z Launcher homescreen replacement. In this round, the developers have implemented a few of the most requested features and ironed out some kinks to performance and the launcher's learning abilities.

Quick, name the top 5 or most popular alternative launchers. Chances are, whichever those are, no matter how fast and smooth they seem to be, they are most likely fully featured launchers that take up space in both storage and memory. For those looking for even less needier options, APUS Launcher tries to go the opposite direction and shed off as much as it can to keep its footprint slim.

CyanogenMod has teased before that it was working on CM Home, which implements a sliding panel behavior ala Google Experience/Now Launcher. That CM Home is now starting to make its way to CyanogenMod 11 nightlies, but its early revelation seems to be drawing some conclusions that this would be CyanogenMod's Google Now killer when in truth, even according to its developers, it is far from it.

Jolla is indeed venturing into the Android world, one step at a time. After giving Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 users a chance to test Sailfish OS itself, the Finnish startup has started the closed alpha run for its Android homescreen replacement. But does Jolla Launcher have what it takes to stand out from the crowd? It's a bit too early to say, but we take Jolla Launcher out for a spin to see its potential.

The new Material Design of Android L definitely struck a chord with some designers and themers. We are likely to be inundated with such things in the next few months, but in the meantime, Android L features and styles are slowly making their way to ROMs and homescreen replacements, the latter of which is being headed by Nova Launcher.